Notes & Sources

Among young adults between the ages of 25 and 34, 63% of four-year college graduates reported exercising vigorously at least once a week before being surveyed in 2008, and another 18% reported light or moderate exercise. Among high school graduates in this age range, 37% reported vigorous exercise and 17% reported light or moderate exercise.

Older adults are less likely than younger adults to exercise, but the pattern by education level is similar within all age groups. For example, among 55- to 64-year-olds, 48% of high school graduates reported any exercise and 23% reported exercising vigorously. Within this age group, 75% of four-year college graduates reported any exercise and 47% reported vigorous exercise.

Numerous studies investigating the relationship between education and health support the idea that the skills, attitudes, and thought patterns fostered by education lead to more responsible health-related behaviors (Mirowsky and Ross, 2003).

Improvements in health are associated with each additional year of schooling, but there does not appear to be a “sheepskin” effect with completion of a degree having a bigger impact than just the completion of an additional year of education. This contrasts to the relationship between schooling and wages, where both additional years of education and degree completion appear to have independent effects (Cutler and Lleras-Muney, 2006).

Additional health care costs in the United States in 2000 attributable to physical inactivity have been estimated at about $200 billion. Physically inactive people spend more days in the hospital and utilize more of a wide range of health care services than more active people (Sari, 2008).